Privacy and Cookie Policy

Last modified: 2/12/2020

INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE

The Spice & Tea Exchange Distribution, LLC d/b/a The Spice & Tea Exchange®  (“Company”, “TSTE®” or “We”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through our compliance with this Privacy Policy (“Policy”).

This Policy applies to all websites associated with The Spice & Tea Exchange Distribution, LLC d/b/a The Spice & Tea Exchange® and its subsidiaries and affiliates and describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the website https://www.spiceandtea.com or any of its sub-sites (hereinafter together referred to as “Website” or “Site") and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.

This Policy applies to information we collect:

• On this Website.
• In email, text, and other electronic messages between you and this Website.
• Through mobile and desktop applications you download from this Website, which provide dedicated non-browser-based interaction between you and this Website.

It does not apply to information collected by any third-party sites that are not owned or controlled by TSTE®, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on our Website. Please be aware that we are not responsible for such third-party service providers’ privacy practices or contents. Therefore, TSTE® advises you to be aware when you leave our Website and to read carefully the privacy policies of such third parties.

You are expressly advised that by accessing and/or using our Site, you accept and agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use https://www.spiceandtea.com/conditions.html, which are incorporated in full by this reference. Further, please note that your use of our Website is also subject to other applicable end user license agreements associated with such digital properties. 

We want our Website to be your source for gourmet spice, unique blend, gourmet tea, sea salt, and sugar related information, products, services and tools related to our TSTE® brand. If you have any questions or concerns about this Policy, contact us by email at or by mail at the following address:

The Spice & Tea Exchange Distribution, LLC d/b/a The Spice & Tea Exchange®

2708 Alt. 19 N, Suite 500

Palm Harbor, FL 34683

Attn: Legal Department

CONSENT NOTICE

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our website. By accessing or using this website and/or creating an account with us or allowing someone to use the sites on your behalf, you agree to be bound by all of the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.

This Policy may change from time to time (see Changes to our Privacy Policy). Your continued use of this website after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.

ARBITRATION CLAUSE NOTICE

NO INFORMATION FROM CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 13

Our Website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 may register at TSTE® or provide any personal information to or on the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on this Website or on or through any of its features/register on the Website, make any purchases through the Website, use any of the interactive or public comment features of this Website or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at by email at privacy@spiceandtea.com or by mail at the following address:

The Spice & Tea Exchange Distribution, LLC d/b/a The Spice & Tea Exchange®

2708 Alt. 19 N, Suite 500

Palm Harbor, FL 34683.

Attn: Legal Department 

INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU AND HOW WE COLLECT IT

We may collect several types of information from and about users of our Website, which may include:

• Information you provide by filling forms on our Website. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Website,
• You may also provide information when you carry out transactions through our Website. For example, when you buy products and/or services through our Website we gather information such as what you are purchasing, your method of payment, and your billing and shipping information. We will use this information to complete the transaction, to provide you with an order history and to facilitate future orders. This information may also be used for aggregate reporting (which summarizes the data in a report but does not contain your PII).
• We may also ask you for information when you enter and/or participate in certain sweepstakes and contests sponsored by us. If you enter a contest, we record your entry and link it to your registration information. Your PII may be used to contact you for winner notification, prize delivery and related purposes.
• We may receive additional PII from you through communications with the Site. For example, if you email the Site to ask about a product or service, we will use that information to respond to your inquiry, to have a history of our service to you and to make better our service by reporting your request, without any PII, in our customer service totals.

We collect this information:

• Directly from you when you provide it to us.
• Automatically as you navigate through the Site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, and other tracking technologies.
• From third parties, for example, our business partners.
  
  

DATA RETENTION

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for three years after they cease being customers for tax purposes. We typically retain this information for a further six to twelve months to ensure that no relevant claim has been made within that three year period before we dispose of it.

In some circumstances we may anonymize your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

OTHER INFORMATION

In order to maintain and improve the Site, we also gather some statistical data when you visit the Site. The exact information we collect may vary but can include the date and time of an access to our website, the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address of a computer requesting a page, the pages requested, and computer and connection information such as browser type and operating system. We do not associate this statistical information with your PII.

We may request PII from you via surveys or voting polls. If you respond to a survey or poll, we may aggregate your responses with those of other Website users and TSTE® customers but we do not associate your response with any personally identifiable information.

PUBLIC INFORMATION

Please note that we may provide you with various ways to submit information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, "posted") on public areas of the Website or transmitted to other users of the Website or third parties (collectively, "User-Generated Content"). In each of these circumstances, TSTE® will gather information from you. Your User-Generated Content are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk – anything you submit to our Site through these services may be made public, so you should not include information you want kept private.

Please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Website with whom you may choose to share your User-Generated Content. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User-Generated Content will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. Please see “Content You Provide” Section of the Terms of Service for additional information, requirements and restrictions related to User-Generated Content.

COOKIES

When you visit or use our Site we send one or more “cookies” to your computer or other device. A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. When you visit the website again, the cookie allows that site to recognize your browser. Cookies may store unique identifiers, user preferences and other information. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some website features or services may not function properly without cookies. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service, including for storing user preferences, tracking user trends and providing relevant advertising to you. TSTE® does not process Do Not Track signals.

We also use Google Analytics to help facilitate the delivery of relevant content and have implemented Google’s advertising features.  Google Analytics also uses cookies in order to report user interactions on the Site and provides that information to TSTE® for our use.  To find out more information regarding Google Analytics and its data security policy, please visit:

PHYSICAL LOCATION

We may collect the physical location of your device by, for example, using satellite, cell phone tower, wifi signals or your IP address. We may use your device’s physical location to provide you with location-based services and content. We may also share your device’s physical location, combined with information about what advertisements you viewed and other information we collect, with our marketing service providers to enable them to provide you with more localized content and to study the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. You may be able to allow or deny such uses and/or sharing of your device’s location by changing your device’s location settings, but if you choose to deny such uses and/or sharing, we and our marketing service providers may not be able to provide you with the location-based services and content. 

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We own the information collected via our Site. Among other things, we use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us to:

• Set-up your account.
• Set-up and manage newsletter subscriptions.
• Provide services and products to you.
• Inform you about offers, contests or surveys.
• Contact you regarding products and services.
• Monitor or improve the Site.
• Customize advertising and content.
• Provide special offers to you.
• Fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
• Carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
• Notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide though it.
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
• For any other purpose with your consent.

Except as otherwise disclosed in this Policy, we do not rent, sell, transfer or otherwise disclose your PII to any third party. We may aggregate information supplied by users during the registration process and information about their use of our Site to maintain our services and describe our website user base to potential partners and advertisers. This information is used to supply summary data about our community of users. There are certain circumstances in which we may need to disclose personally identifiable information about you, and we want you to know about them.

We may employ other businesses, certain services, and individuals to perform functions on our behalf, such as fulfilling orders, delivering packages, providing customer service, sending mail, processing credit card payments, holding live chats, providing marketing assistance, data analysis and customer service. We may share your PII with these companies. We will provide them with only the information necessary to perform their functions.

We may form partnerships with other companies. Some of these partnerships include the sharing of some of your personal information with our partners to extend these services to you. We require that our partners not disclose your information to other organizations without your consent. However, our partners’ use of your information is governed by their privacy policies.

We may reveal user information if we believe that a user is harming or interfering with other Site users, anyone else, or violating our Terms of Use, or infringing any of our rights. Further, to the extent we believe it is required by law, TSTE® will reveal information, including personally identifiable information. If we are asked by subpoena or other legal means to disclose any of your personally identifiable information we will, if permitted by law, attempt to notify you via the email address you supplied during registration at least ten days before we respond to the request.

The Site may be sold in connection with a sale of a substantial portion of the assets of our company or other transactions may occur in which your personally identifiable information is one of the business assets transferred. In such a case, your personally identifiable information, which we have gathered, may be one of the business assets we transfer and, you agree to such transfer and acknowledge and agree that any successor to or acquirer of us will continue to have the right to use your personal information and other information in accordance with the terms of this Policy.

We may also share your personal information with our subsidiaries and/or affiliates consistent with this Policy.  Our subsidiaries and affiliates will be bound to treat and maintain any personal information in accordance with this Policy.

We may also use and share your personal information for other legitimate business reasons not specified herein. We will periodically update this Policy to inform you of any changes to our data use and sharing practices.

Your Legal Rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us using the details set out in Section 1 (Introduction and Scope). A summary of the rights you have is set out below:

• Opting-out of Marketing: You can ask us or third-parties to stop sending you marketing communications or newsletters at any time by: (a) visiting our unsubscribe page and following the instructions provided; (b) by using the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any marketing communications which we send to you; or (c) by contacting us at any time using the details set out in Section 1 (Introduction and Scope).
• Opting-out of Sale of Personal Information
• Data Subject Access Requests: You have the right to request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Correction: You have the right to request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
• Erasure: You have the right to request we erase your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. Please note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons, including, without limitation, the need to preserve evidence in litigation, which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
• Processing Objection: You have the right to object to us processing your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third-party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
• Processing Restriction: You have the right to request we restrict the processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
• Data Transfer: You have the right to request we transfer your personal data to you or to a third-party. We will provide to you, or a third-party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
• Withdrawing consent: You have the right to withdraw your consent to processing where we are relying on that consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

DATA SECURITY

No data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be entirely secure. We cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we will make all reasonable efforts to ensure security on our systems. We use secure server software and firewalls to protect your information from unauthorized access or disclosure. The Website uses TLS 1.2 and is encrypted and authenticated using AES_128_GCM. This allows sensitive information such as Credit Card Details or Login Details to be transmitted securely. 

You should be aware that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed or disclosed by breach of such firewalls and secure server software. By using this Website or providing personal information to us, you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy and administrative issues relating to your use of the Site. We may post a notice on our Site if a security breach occurs. In these circumstances, we may also send an email to you at the email address you have provided to us so that you can take appropriate steps.

Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive free written notice of a security breach (or to withdraw your consent from receiving electronic notice) you should notify us at privacy@spiceandtea.com.

EMAIL COMMUNICATION

We may use your email address to contact you with required email messages about the Site. We may also use your email address to send you newsletters or other communications you request. We will do our best to provide you with an opportunity to opt-out of receiving such further communications at the time you are contacted.

TEXT MARKETING

By signing up via text, you agree to receive recurring automated promotional and personalized marketing text messages from The Spice & Tea Exchange® at the cell number used when signing up. Reply HELP for help and STOP to cancel. Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. View Terms & Privacy.

DISPUTES AND AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE 

By using the Site, you and TSTE® agree that, if there is any controversy, claim, action, or dispute arising out of or related to your use of the Site, or the breach, enforcement, interpretation, or validity of this Policy or any part of it ("Dispute"), both parties shall first try in good faith to settle such Dispute by providing written notice to the other party describing the facts and circumstances of the Dispute and allowing the receiving party 30 days in which to respond to or settle the Dispute.

Notice shall be sent:

• To TSTE® at:

The Spice & Tea Exchange Distribution, LLC d/b/a The Spice & Tea Exchange®

2708 Alt. 19 N, Suite 500

Palm Harbor, FL 34683

Attn: Legal Department